How majority of Russians see the role of Russia today?

[Alex_Ivanov]

Originally posted by HumanRightsMatter2005
I think a lot of Russians are very paranoid about the West.

Do you think we don't have any reason?

[mikeaverko]

Bravo Alex.

Irish carries on like someone who thinks he's getting an objective view of Russia via reading/watching/listening to outlets like the BBC, NPR, PBS, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Washington Post, CBC, Fox News et al.

I follow all media including those regularly perpetuating half truths and outright lies.

I kind of doubt if Irish is doing the same.

If he/she in fact does, then he/she is being a flat out fraud by expressing such bogus views.

[HumanRightsMatter2005]

Originally posted by Alex_Ivanov

Do you think we don't have any reason?

Well, I trace it back to the Soviet period, when the West was demonised in your national media as being some kind of threat.

[HumanRightsMatter2005]

Originally posted by mikeaverko
Bravo Alex.

Irish carries on like someone who thinks he's getting an objective view of Russia via reading/watching/listening to outlets like the BBC, NPR, PBS, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Washington Post, CBC, Fox News et al.

I follow all media including those regularly perpetuating half truths and outright lies.

I kind of doubt if Irish is doing the same.

If he/she in fact does, then he/she is being a flat out fraud by expressing such bogus views.

I also read English-language Russian online websites. I read this article recently http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/...terrorism.html , which relates to what is called an anti-terror law, which introduced after Beslan. The law forbids media coverage in areas where "anti-terror" operations are going on. Since your president defines the war in Chechnya as an "anti-terrorist operation", whis effectively amounts to a media-blackout on Chechnya.






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The new law introduces a new term in the Russian legislation - "the terrorist danger regime." The term means that authorities will be empowered with restricting the pedestrian and the car traffic in the streets in case of a terrorist threat. In addition, special services will be entitled to tap telephones and ban massive street meetings. The draft law also stipulates that mass media outlets will not be allowed to conduct independent activities in the area of counter-terrorist operations. The terrorist danger regime can be put into effect for up to 60 days. Also, note the part referring to "To crown it all, the new draft law prohibits exposing the information about scenes or facts of extreme violence.". This effectively bans reporting of allegations of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

This is not a Western website. I also sometimes read the Moscow Times website.

During the First Chechen War (1994-6), the Russian media criticism of the death and destruction there were important in making the war unpopular in Russia and bringing it to an end. This is why media-controls are being brought in now. Your government doesn't want Russian society to know what is going on in Chechnya in terms of human rights. He fears that if you see it, then you will turn against the war, and god forbid (!) him.

The Western Constitutions have rules on freedom of the media that make it difficult to censor the press or tv. Hence the difference between what OUR media in the West is saying, and yours. The editor of Izvestiya was sacked for criticising Putin, because its owner, Vladimir Potanin, was told by his buddy Putin to silence the newspaper's criticism or face consequences. Perhaps he would have met a fate like that of Khordokovsky had he not complied.

By the way, it would unfair of you to confuse criticism of your government or security-forces with "anti-Russian bias".

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Having taken into consideration the hostage crisis experience in Moscow and Beslan, the authors of the law restricted mass media's opportunity to report details of a terrorist act. A chairman of the counter-terrorist headquarters will regulate the form and the amount of the information provided to media outlets at this point, the Kommersant newspaper wrote. Furthermore, accessing a special operation zone for journalists and reporters can be prohibited. If the press is allowed to report from the site of a special operation, it will not be possible for journalists to use candid cameras, take pictures and audio recordings without a special permission for that from the chairman of the special headquarters.
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[Alex_Ivanov]

Originally posted by HumanRightsMatter2005

Well, I trace it back to the Soviet period, when the West was demonised in your national media as being some kind of threat.

Since time immemorial, trouble always came to our land from two directions: from the West and from the East. After tatars were finally crushed, only western threat remained. So tracing it back to USSR only is a mistake of short memory. It was deep in our genes long before 1917.

[mikeaverko]

Media coverage of Iraq is even more censored Irish.

Ashleigh Banfield got clipped by NBC for correctly accusing American mASS media of being too gung ho pro-Bush regime in the initial phases of the Iraq war. The editor of http://www.nypress.com was fired after some local politicians demaded such because they felt he disrespected the late Pontiff.

The Moscow Times is actually owned by a non-Russian business interest and some of its journalists (Gessen, Albats, Felgenhauer and Latynina) carry on as prostitutes for interests hostile towards Russia.

It's much easier to get mainstream American views in Russian media than vice versa.

This is because schmuckos like Soros and the KGB (Khodorkovsky, Gusinsky and Berezovsky) are very much involved in propping individual Russian journalists and media outlets with $$$ to propagate their views.

[HumanRightsMatter2005]

mikeaverko, there is an enormous difference.

The media needs the permission of the Russian military to even ENTER Chechnya. Once there, it is the LAW that ALL aspects of editorial control once there are subject to a veto by the same army that is being accused by seemingly every newspaper outside of Russian and dictatorial regimes of attrocities against innocent civilians.

Regarding NBC, the difference is that the law doesn't give the US military the right to censor news reports from Iraq. We see what's going on in Iraq every day of the week. How often do we get to see reports from inside Chechnya? Probably once or twice a year. A huge difference.